Sunday Collection: Powerful Ageing

Writing about Granny D earlier this week, I was reminded how scared society tends to be of age and old people. There’s such pressure on the externals, a need to look young as long as possible.

With that fear can come paralysis, and a buying into the notion that there are certain ways an old person should behave. (Clue: the word should is one to watch out for, whatever your age. If you find yourself saying it a lot, stop and figure out what’s going on.)

So this Sunday’s collection spotlights some writing by members of the Elderwomanspace online network I belong to.

It’s only right to start with MarianVan Eyk McCain, because Marian started Elderwomanspace. She recently celebrated her 72nd birthday on a coastal path walk, which she describes beautifully in this post. Here’s an excerpt:

Another thing I love about it is being surrounded by beauty in all directions. So much beauty, at times, that I almost explode with sheer joy at being there. There is something totally wonderful about being able to see things that can only be seen by those who are prepared to walk for miles along the path. It feels like being one of only a handful of privileged people at a special, private banquet.

If you enjoy Marian’s blog, you would almost certainly love her book Elderwoman, which I experienced as a blueprint for ageing in an open, spiritually rich way.

June Calendar, who lives in New York, started a new blog earlier this month, exploring life in the wake of her recent 70th birthday. Her very first entry celebrated the discovery that $10 would buy her a lifetime pass to the American National Parks. Since then she’s written several thoughtful posts around her continuing adventure of life.

I really enjoy Anne O’Dell’s blog about her life in Canada, where, as you do when you’re 60ish(!), she is building a kayak. This post shows the hump-back whale portrait she’s burning into the rear bulkhead. The kayak will be finished soon, and I’m kind of hoping Anne will have a proper launch ceremony for it! Anne has some beautiful photography on her blog as well; I particularly enjoyed this collection of chickens, dogs, turtles and scenery.

Virginia DeBolt has a number of blogs, including Web Teacher, which is packed with useful information. She’s also a contributing editor at BlogHer, and she’s just written a post called The Value of Slow, which is right up my street. She asks:

Would it improve your life to slow down a bit? Reflect on quality instead of responding with quantity? There’s a community of people, appropriately calling themselves ‘Slow Community,’ who think it might be valuable to take some things slowly.

Well I know how it has improved my own life, and you may be interested in following up some of the links in her article.

There are so many good blogs in the Elderwoman community, including:

• The Best is Yet to Come – read about a wonderful trip to the Galapagos Islands
• Costa de la Luz Gardening – living in Andalucia, Spain
• Mary Contrary – self-described news junkie and commenter
• And of course perhaps the best known blogging resource for people growing older: Ronni Bennett’s Time Goes By. One of my favourite parts of her site is the Elder Storytelling Place, where you can find some really interesting articles. (I first found Ronni because I wanted to start a blog called As Time Goes By. She got there first, c’est la vie.)

Now you’ll probably notice two things about this choice of links:

1. Few of them are specifically, or only, about age. Mostly they’re good writing by women who happen to be mid-fifties and above.
2. They’re all by women. I’m sorry, guys, I really am, but these blogs are by members of the Elderwomenspace network. I chose you the biker photo above to compensate though!

For more powerful imagery, go check out the Flickr group Gusto: Ageing with Power, Wisdom and Irreverence.

And here’s a video of one of my favourite old geezers, Willie Nelson, with the (getting on a bit now) legendary Eric Clapton:

Have a blessed week, everyone.

Image above by hialoakapua